Next week 2 August I'll be going up to Chiang Mai to visit relatives. I would very much like to see what you are all doing. We've got 50 rai in Khao Yai. We used to do livestock, then moved over to corn. Now we're trying to diversify. This year we started irrigated sweet corn/coriander/makua puang. I'm also starting some fruit orchards.

I'd like to see what everyone else is doing. I intend to take a lazy drive up there and back, so say anywhere North of Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat) would be great. I won't impose on anyone, I don't bite

Over the years that I've been reading this site, I've always been intrigued by your stories, Now I want to see first-hand.

Fish farmers are especially welcome.

Anyone kind enough to be interested please just PM me.

Regards.

Just a note to thank Lannarebirth and WatersEdge for their kindness and giving up their time to show me their "estates".

Two very different ways of doing things, but both successful. Well done. If anybody is in Khao Yai and wants to see how not to do it, please feel free to PM me.

Regards.

So what is the deal with farming? Do a few expats do this?

Just interested really

Just a note to thank Lannarebirth and WatersEdge for their kindness and giving up their time to show me their "estates".

Two very different ways of doing things, but both successful. Well done. If anybody is in Khao Yai and wants to see how not to do it, please feel free to PM me.

Regards.

Well, it was my pleasure to visit with you and your lovely wife. You're too kind in saying "different ways of doing things". I have no idea what I'm doing but having a good time all the same. Clearly the other fellow you visited knows a thing or two and is a real productive farmer. I wish i was, sorta. Anyhow, if ever in the area again, please do drop by.

Ken

Thanks for visiting teletiger

Come back any time you like.

It was fascinating to hear the different climate seasons,

soil conditions, and animal feed availability.

Hi lannarebirth,

teletiger may have started something here.

The invitation is open to you as well to visit.

I'm a farmer trapped in the garden,

eager for something large scale to open up.

The productivity seems always around the next corner,

but step by step the potential becomes capacity.

I think that's the point of farming here,

keep kicking at the details

until the whole plan comes together.

Nothing I do is all that great in one item alone,

but in combination of integrating fish, animals and crops,

I can catch myself boasting inside.

Throw in sprinkler irrigation and perfect level terraces for hog waste dispersal,

and a little gloating has been recently detected.

Peer Review is when things get tested by a fresh unbiased mind,

coming from expertise of a different set of answers

It's this investigative exchange that to me is so valuable about teletiger's visit

A new set of eyes can ask something obvious like, Why isn't that field fully occupied?

Over the course of time you uncover facts

that have been right in front of your face the whole time.

For instance,

my former weed from hel_l

Spiny Pigweed Pak Kom Amaranthus spinosus,

turned out to be one of my finest hog feed supplements,

so now I'm thankful that when it's sliced off at ground level,

it bounces back to full foliage in 30 days.

Well then,

That's about it from the farm philosopher here.

Ya'll come any time you like.

Hi Richard7,

A bit of elaboration from the farm philosopher here...

Farming for me is natural enough,

my parents didn't consult me before raising me on the farm.

It's just as well, I'd have caused trouble in the city.

I was born with hay chaff in my nose and dune sand in my ears.

Nevada high desert Alfalfa

That's Lucerne for the Europeans among us

Medicago sativa to be technically astute.

High water requirement crop raised intentionally in the cold desert,

in order to get fast drying of the hay to retain bright green color,

and cool nights provide a greater percentage of high protein leaf.

Bet you never thought of the desert as cold?

Yep, Deserts are always blazing hot on television

Nope, this Nevada high desert is chilly in the winter.

Go figure, truth is stranger than fiction,

but my parents are still doing a wonderful job of it.

Yeah, so what's that got to do with Thailand.

Zip Notta Zilch

I arrived in Thailand answering a job opportunity as

Marketing Director for a Printing Company.

Then slipped sideways into Farming

by way of a brief stint as Engineer with a BioDiesel manufacturer.

Little junk always has annoyed me,

no time for adjustment,

plug and play,

get it out the door...produce it today or forget it.

so I exercise remarkable frustration abatement daily.

I have no patience with

demonstrating what someone else already developed,

testing that it works here,

goofing off disguised as learning,

losing money in a controlled manner slowly

mixing charity with business,

and yet at the end of the day,

that's bless my little heart about what I do!

I really am hard core at heart,

a true farmer trapped in the garden,

still looking for the wide open front gate.

I don't buy the poppycock that poor people of the tropics want help,

much less are motivated to enact it,

so it's an altruistic foreign fantasy to break our necks

pretending to make a difference.

I'd therefore be just another low class cynic

if it wasn't for the evident fruit of my labors,

Actually Helping Burma migrant people

with one day's wage at 5 pm,

restoring a tiny sliver of the dignity

that I had no part at taking away.

Were I pressed to condense the humanitarian aspect,

of my strictly business for profit company

I'd say restoring the dignity.

My favorite single line is

Farming is War.

Yes, a lot of foreigners do farm in Thailand.

What else should you do in an agrarian rural area?

Six months to watch stuff grow,

Six more months to watch it all die.

Some of us get out there and disturb things to tweak the outcome.

That's about what farming is about,

cheating the natural process of its chaos,

imposing order with intensive vigor.

Of course, the natural situation out there has a lot of chaotic variables.

My mother's favorite single line is,

Nature Abhors a Vacuum.

Some of these foreigners have never farmed before,

but learning is by observation,

so there's nothing that a steep learning curve can't fix.

If you'd like a fiery response,

and it frequently happens on forum,

Tell some of these farmer guys they have no business

messing with something they don't know a thing about.

It's a blast to read them cut each other to ribbons

over a perceived insult which goes toe to toe

I take it as a true mark of passion,

when a man is ready to fight over his farming skills.

Hey, it happens back home in the hay field,

so why shouldn't it play a part here as well.

What good would either farmer be if they both weren't prepared to slug it out?

I prefer good hot tempered rascals any day, even if they're totally wrong.

Thailand has obstacles not part of the outdoor situation.

About when you think you have the fields green and the animals healthy,

along comes someone hoping for a discount without the purchase.

I trust it is thinly veiled enough to not offend anyone,

yet convey the meaning.

There are a lot of tender and timid feelings at stake.

It would be awful if I accused anyone of thievery or corruption.

I'm so crass and ill cultured that I've even suspected thievery as the hand in the glove of corruption.

So, What was it you wanted to know about farming in particular?

Edison I believe it was,

who said,

Invention is 10% Inspiration 90% Perspiration

Farming is something like my old farmer buddy said,

I'm Superintendin' them Stoopin' & Bendin'

As you see,

I've said nothing about a single detail of Thailand farming.

As much material as there is wrapped in the entire forum,

it's not anywhere near exhaustive...a mere scratching of the surface.

Put the first seed in the ground tomorrow morning bright and early.

Do it totally wrong in an unsuitable place covered in weeds,

then move it until you kill it,

and do it again.

See the important part? DO it.

I won't start a topic here but I did my own Horticultural tour of the Chiang Mai area with a world-class ginger-heleconia guy -- we visited the non-public areas of Queen Sirikit BG and the Agricultural Dept. at Maejo University -- the pictures at QSBG are of the high-altitude station and you can just see the horizon in the background...